It was raining heavily outside and the river was raging. In Xujiazhuang, the fragrance is already fragrant.
Now the entire Xujiazhuang, with the addition of seven or eight stickmen and family members, now has a total of nearly forty people, which can be regarded as a small-scale village.
The few stickmen who joined later were holding thick bowls and still didn't dare to take a bite, even though the aroma in the bowl almost drove away the gluttons.
Having been in Tangjiang for a long time, they heard too many legends about Hemu. How dare you eat this Hemu messenger...
"The knife is stained with blood, the man is hanging eggs, but he is too afraid to even take a few bites of fish." Si Hu raised his head and laughed, reached into the pot again, and fished out another fish.
"Eat, it's okay." Xu Mu said with a smile.
A few big stickmen gingerly took the first bite, and then, with ecstatic expressions on their faces, they began to devour it.
"Chen Sheng, get some jars of wine!"
After going through life and death, you should always relax.
On the chairs next to them, Gongou and Heifu were injured and couldn't drink together, but they also ate the fish and laughed.
…
The torrential rain continued for several days, and the monument line was overflowing for another two sections.
In Tangjiang City, there were many people shouting at the sky and the earth. They knelt in the rain to worship the river mother, and threw the frightened livestock into the rolling river.
Xu Mu felt distressed.
These livestock are the most valuable assets of ordinary people.
"Heifu, during the floods in previous years, what did the official office say?"
Although he knew that asking might be in vain, Xu Mu couldn't help it.
"My boss, there is something terrible to say! Those officials can only collect money and don't care whether we live or die. If any supplies are handed out and it reaches our hands, we will probably only have soup."
At the feet of the Emperor, Xu Mu originally thought that the colluding officials would be more restrained, but it seems that he thought too much.
"However, although it's not the case in Guanfang, in the past, during floods like this, everyone would sacrifice to the river mother."
This sentence is equivalent to saying that in Tangjiang City, there are many people worshiping Hemu. Xu Mu has seen the Hemu Temple. The asbestos sculpture of Hemu is a strange mansion with a human head and a snake's tail.
"My boss, listen to me. The Hemu sacrifice over Jijiang uses living people."
Xu Mu was stunned for a moment.
"The person in charge of the official office?"
"It's not those officials' affairs, it's those old temple people who are in charge."
The old temple man is like a fortune teller. No matter which dynasty, there are people who spread panic.
Heifu moved his mouth and said, "Master, I'm thinking about waiting for the rain to stop. Judging from the heavy rain, human sacrifice should be needed this year."
Xu Mu's heart sank and he felt uncomfortable in his chest. After traveling through time, he was even more disgusted with this kind of ghostly and confusing things.
"Wow! Dong, Dongjia!"
Not far away, a young man raised his arms tremblingly and suddenly shouted in shock.
Everyone present hurriedly followed the direction and looked up.
In the rain and mist.
In the center of the river, a huge black figure was revealed wetly, with the head of a snake and the body of a human body, holding a tall three-headed fork in its right arm.
In the turbulent river, he remained motionless.
"This, this is the river mother!"
"What a river mother."
"I ate an innocent fish earlier, will it come to seek revenge on me?"
Xu Mu frowned, and for a moment, he felt even weirder.
Outside Zhuangzi, many people in Dongfang also saw it, and they knelt on the ground, sobbing and crying.
A big wave passed by, and in the blink of an eye, the river mother who had appeared had disappeared.
It was this gesture that made those who saw it feel more and more respected.
"My boss, if not, throw all the smoked fish into the river." Hei Fu's voice trembled as he spoke.
A good man who was not even afraid of knives, but now his face turned pale because of something like this, let alone ordinary people.
"Heifu, did the river mother show up when there was a flood in the past?"
"Xian, Xian, otherwise, everyone wouldn't be so scared. Boss, we don't want to provoke the river mother and throw the innocent fish into the river."
"If you don't vote, my boss hasn't had enough." Xu Mu shook his head coldly.
In the past few months, Xu Mu has understood very clearly that there are any ghosts and monsters in this world that he has traveled to.
Two days later, the heavy rain finally subsided a lot, and the originally turbulent water level rarely retreated by two monument lines.
The river water was turbid, and even the water from the old well was turbid. With no other option, Xu Mu could only ask someone to filter it several times before heating it up and drinking it to avoid getting sick.
Many of the bloated livestock carcasses were stuck on the river surface and did not flow downstream. The rotting smell slowly spread throughout Tangjiang City.
Xu Mu walked out of the village and looked down. The soaking rain had soaked many of the bricks on the earthen wall next to the village, making the earthen wall that stretched for more than a hundred steps crumbling.
"The government has an order that all households should contribute a share of silver for water control. A large household has ten taels, a middle household has one tael, and a small household has two taels."
Three or four cavalry officers, wearing raincoats and riding horses, began to run around Dongfang to tell each other.
"Hei Fu, do you have to pay the water treatment money every year?"
"It's all paid."
"Hand it in, what next?"
"Then... I won't put you in jail."
Xu Mu sneered, what kind of bullshit logic is this? It's nothing more than taking advantage of the situation and scraping the people's wealth all over again.
A horse-riding officer quickly stepped in front of Zhuangzi. As soon as he stopped the reins, the official dismounted hurriedly and cupped his hands with his fists.
"The little boss is polite, but the Tangjiang River is flooded, and the government has no choice but to collect money for disaster relief."
In Tangjiang City.
The prestige of the little boss at Bianguan has spread so widely that even officials like them are not willing to come to Dongfang to provoke them when they have nothing to do.
One hundred and nineteen Xifang gangsters couldn't even stop them...
"The Li family of the restaurant over there donated two hundred taels generously, and the Chen family of Buzhuang also gave a hundred taels. The little boss——"
Xu Mu looked coldly and took off the money bag from his waist.
The official officer standing in front of him became excited. Everyone in Tangjiang City knew that this young boss from the border had a net worth of at least three thousand taels.
If this is more generous, one or two hundred taels would be considered a good sum.
But Xu Mu's next move immediately made Guan Chao stunned.
From the huge money bag, the young boss only took out a handful of broken silver and counted it several times.
"My little boss, this is a disaster relief matter——"
"Nakato Ichiryo?"
"indeed……"
"I counted several rounds and it was indeed one or two."
Throwing the pieces of silver coldly into the hands of the official, Xu Mu walked into the village again without looking back.
He has money, but he is not sick.
This so-called cure for mercury, in the final analysis, will eventually fall into the hands of officials and enrich their own pockets. If he really wanted to save people, he might as well just give them to the victims.
The officer looked hateful and threw the pieces of silver in his hand randomly into his pocket, at least four or five of them flew away. Then he angrily got on his horse, stepped through the rain that had lost his horse's hooves, and walked away coldly.
